The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of manual cocking device or charger for an automatic firing weapon.
Generally speaking, the manual cocking device or charger of the present development is of the type comprising an entrainment element which is movable by means of a cocking or tensioning chain for retracting a breechblock against the force of its forwardly advancing means thereof. A sprocket wheel engages with the cocking or tensioning chain and is operatively connected to a drive shaft which is driven by a removable handcrank.
A weapon cocking device or charger of this type has become known to the art from Swiss Pat. No. 459,000. This device is associated with the disadvantage that in the event of a possibly premature release of the handcrank, i.e. before the breechblock has been caught in its rearmost position by the trigger, the breechblock is prematurely forwardly accelerated and the gun operator thereby endangered, not least by the rapidly rotating handcrank.